Saturday, January 8, 2011

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's irresponsible Green Energy policies have hurt all Ontarians, but Baby Boomers are one group that even Premier Dad shouldn't mess with, and sadly now for him (and luckily for all Ontarians), he will feel the Boomer revolt that is coming in the 2011 Provincial Election.

“The boomers are concerned about the environment but the policies being put in place are going to have a very negative impact on them as they increasingly head into their retirement years,” says demographer David Foot, author of the best-selling book Boom Bust & Echo.

“Basically, as we get older our bodies start to have more and more difficulty adjusting to extremes in climate, so we turn up the air conditioners in the summer and turn up the heat in the winter.”

The message here is that higher energy prices, as much as they’re inevitable, will be more difficult to swallow as the first wave of boomers head into retirement and take on fixed incomes. For many, every penny will be watched more closely.

“What’s more they’re more likely to be home during the day,” says Foot.

In other words, most boomers will no longer be heated and cooled at their employer’s expense during the workday. They’ll be at home paying peak-time electricity rates as the furnace runs full-time during the winter and air conditioner blows 24/7 in the summer.

This has huge implications for utilities as they move to time-of-use pricing for electricity. Boomers, as they head into their senior years, will have a more difficult time shifting their power use to cheaper off-peak periods from expensive peak periods. Many pre-boomers are already struggling to do so.

Of course, the boomers have to make attempts to conserve electricity and shift their power use like everyone else. What’s ruffling feathers is that the time-of-use program is perceived as a one-size-fits-all attempt at shaping electricity use and many seniors, growing in political influence as boomers age, feel they’re being asked to bear a disproportionate share of the sacrifice.

Even with the insulting concessions that Dalton McGuinty just put out to obviously manipulate the public before the coming election (like his 10% Ontario Clean Energy Benefit after doubling our energy rates and slapping the HST on top..., and some menial tax credits for seniors), his own government said to expect a 45% increase in energy rates over the next 5 years, and given that that message came from his own government, obviously that figure is a severely lowball estimate of what the increase will actually be (especially when McGuinty's green policies cost Ontario 1,680% extra for energy -see: Dalton McGuinty's Energy Policy Costs Ontario 1680% Extra for Electricity!).

Like the rest of Ontarians, Baby Boomers are just counting down the days until they can end this McGuinty Liberal Government madness and get back to some sound logical energy policies that will allow Ontarians the freedom to live their lives in peace.